OYSTERS AND METHODS OF OYSTER-CULTURE. 323 



more successful years, aud tlie irregularity of liis crop may cost the 

 jilaiiter liis market. 



It is obvious that iu order to obtain more certain results the con- 

 ditions upon which the spatting depends should be subject to some 

 control. It is useless to expect such control in any adaptation of the 

 ordinary method of planting shells, and the only direction which prom- 

 ises success iu such an attempt is some modification or form of jiond 

 culture. The culturists of Europe have shown that a very considerable 

 control can be exercised over the conditions in parks used for growing 

 oysters from seed, and with proper modifications the same success 

 could doubtless be attained with breeding ponds for raising seed. 

 "To actually come into competition with the system of shell sowing in 

 deep water we must proceed to abandon all old methods, condense our 

 cultch so as to have the greatest possible quantity over the smallest 

 possible area, and finally have that so arranged that the currents devel- 

 oped by the tides, in consequence of the peculiar construction of a system 

 of spawning j)onds and canals, will keep the cultch washed clean auto- 

 matically. Unless this can be done, all systems of pond or cove culture 

 for the purpose of obtaining spat must unhesitatingly be pronounced 

 failures."* 



Impressed by these facts. Dr. Ryder, in 1885, devised a very ingenious 

 method of spat-culture, which he described as follows : 



(A) Tlie method as adapted to canals or sluices -in which the cultch is placed in masses, 

 with jetties at intervals. 



The first form in which. I propose to inaugurate the new system of spat-culture 

 which has grown out of the principles already developed consists, essentially, in 

 condensing the cultch or collecting apparatus in such a way as to expose the maxi- 

 mum amount of collecting surface for the spat to adhere to within the least possible 

 area. This may be achieved in the following manner : A pond, X, as shown in plan 

 and elevation in plate iii, is constructed with a long zigzag channel, s, connecting it 

 with the open water. The pond ought to be, say, 40 to 60 feet square ; the channel, 

 8, may be, say, 3 feet 3 inches wide, as shown in the diagram. The vertical banks, 

 z, between the zigzag canals running to the open water might be 3 feet in width. 

 The sides of the canals ought to be nearly or quite vertical, and the earth held in 

 place with piles and rough slabs or planks. The direct inlet to the pond at I might 

 be provided with a gate, and the outlet of the canal, where the latter connects with 

 the open water at o, might be provided with a filter of moderately fine galvanized 

 wire ni-tting and a gate; the first answering to keep out large fish and di'bris and 

 the latter to close under certain circumstances, or when violent storms develop 

 strong breakers. The accompanying plan and sectional elevation, as shown in plate 

 III, will render the construction of such a pond aud system of collecting canals clear. 



Into the pond, A', I would put an abundance of spawning oysters, say 100 bushels, 

 if the pond were 40 feet square, and 200 busliels if it were 60 feet square. But 

 instead of throwing the oysters directly upon the bottom, I would suggest that a 

 platform, of strong slats be placed over the bottom of the pond at a distance of 

 8 to 10 inches from the earth below, upon which the oysters should be evenly dis- 

 tributed. This arrangement will prevent the adult oysters from being killed by 

 sediment, and also affbrd a collector, in the form of a layer of shells, to be spread 



* Rept. U. S. F. C. 1885, p. 392. 



